


your eyes like a shot of whiskey

by hc66



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Coming of Age, Falling In Love, Highschool Drama, M/M, Unrequited Love, donghyuck lies to himself, mark confuses donghyuck, they become bestfriends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-13
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:13:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25239034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hc66/pseuds/hc66
Summary: Every beginning has its end.This is what Donghyuck thinks every time a chapter of his life finishes.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 16





	1. the time in which it all began

**Author's Note:**

> title is a lyric from the song 'intoxicated' by the cab.
> 
> a piece of me.

Donghyuck meets Mark his sophomore year of highschool.

Before Mark, he had only been focused on getting good grades and doing the most with his friends. He wasn’t looking to crush on anyone that could distract him from his academics.

He had always been a natural leader, he excelled well in most subjects, had a group of friends he would never change for the world, and a sense of duty to make the entire world proud of him.

He was quite the social butterfly but cautious in a room of people he didn’t know well.

This was how he felt the entire first semester of sophomore year in his English Honors 10 class.

Until he comes back from winter break with a whole different seating chart.

This is when he is notified of Mark Lee’s existence when he sits down in the same 6-seat table.


	2. the project

Donghyuck doesn’t quite remember the first words he ever spoke to Mark Lee but he knows he had jinxed his future in the fleeting moment that he thinks to himself, “I could like this guy if I wanted to.” 

It’s not like Donghyuck didn’t know who Mark was until he sat with him. He truly had been alerted of his existence the moment he stepped into his English class for the first time, but only knew him by the guy who sat in the middle of the class and yelled to another kid, Jaemin, across the classroom so they could talk. 

It was about a month into the second half of the school year that their English teacher has assigned a group project, a video trailer for a movie they needed to make up. They soon made a groupchat so they could discuss the specifics of the project and so they could choose a house to film at. 

Donghyuck ended up offering to bring his camera to film the trailer as well as to edit it. When he arrived, Mark was already there talking to another groupmate. 

“Hey, sorry I couldn’t find my camera. I brought sort of an outline on how to film the trailer." starts Donghyuck as he hands the paper over to the group. 

“It’s all good, I think we should film the scenes outside now before it starts to get dark then.” Mark responds. 

So that’s exactly what they did. They try their best as the 15 and 16 year olds they were, play around and create tons of bloopers, and stop every so often to snack on chips. 

It’s when the group is filming inside and they’re squished on a sofa after an incredibly fun day of work and messing around while learning more about them, that Donghyuck turns to look at Mark and finds himself thinking that Mark is actually pretty cute. 

Moments later he thinks, “I could like this guy if I wanted to.”


	3. the picture

After their group project is done and submitted, Donghyuck ends up having a pretty fun week going to concerts with Jeno and Renjun. He had been waiting for these concerts for a while now. He goes to see Hoodie Allen, a not-so-famous rapper, Jeno had been pretty into and had asked Donghyuck to accompany him, he enjoyed concerts so he wasn’t opposed to a free ticket, food, and a ride to the show. The concert with Renjun was an EXO one. Both Donghyuck and Renjun love their music and are quite the fanboys, and if you were to ask Donghyuck which he liked best, he wouldn’t hesitate to say EXO. 

Donghyuck comes back from his weekend happy but sick and with a dying voice. 

He sits in English class on his phone after a round of project presentations while waiting for the bell to dismiss them onto lunch. 

He soon hears a, “Hey..” coming from left ear. It’s Mark looking down at him with a small smile. 

Donghyuck looks up to face Mark, “Oh hey.. what’s up?” 

He stood by his thoughts about thinking Mark was cute and actually kind of his type. Mark had made him laugh a lot the day of the group project and thought he was a pretty cool dude. 

“Nothing really, I could hear you coughing and your voice doesn’t sound so good.. are you okay?” 

“Yeah I’m fine, I just got sick over the weekend and I ruined my voice at some concerts, I’m okay though, thanks for asking.”

“Ohhh, who’d you go see?” Mark asks with a teasing glint in his eyes.

“Some rapper.. and some other group but you don’t need to know their name.” Donghyuck begins as he turns a little red.

Mark thinks for split second until he settles for a shrug and turns to look down at the phone in Donghyuck’s hands. 

“Oh! Let’s take a picture!” 

Donghyuck turns to look at Mark with a questioning look but he sees that Mark is already smiling towards the phone so he accepts the random request and takes a picture with him only showing his left eye in the frame. 

As soon as the shutter clicks, the lunch bell rings. Mark starts to back away and walk toward his desk to pick up his backpack. Donghyuck begins to pack his things and starts overthinking his entire interaction with Mark until he hears, “Don’t forget to send me the picture.”


	4. Lucas

Donghyuck doesn’t think about Mark outside of class. Instead, he hangs out with his friends, goes home straight afterschool, does homework, helps his mom with chores, watches shows on Netflix, and repeats his routine day after day. 

One day as he’s walking from his class to another, he stops as he sees his friend, Chenle, talking to a girl in the hallway. He walks up to them to greet them when he hears them talking about their other friend, Lucas. 

“I heard that Lucas and Mark are talking and it seems like it’s getting pretty serious.” is what comes out of the girl’s mouth. 

Donghyuck couldn’t help to ask, “Mark? As in Mark Lee?”

Chenle and the girl turn to look at him, “Yeah, do you know something about it?” asks Chenle. Donghyuck shakes his head, “But I know him though. Weird, I thought Lucas would’ve mentioned to me..” 

Chenle shrugs, “They just started talking, I’m sure he was going to tell us about it when it became official. Although I hope it’s soon because I think one of Mark’s friends is really cute and I want Lucas to hook me up.” 

Donghyuck couldn’t seem to think about any of Mark’s friends besides Jaemin from English. 

The girl looks around to find that most students had already gone inside class, “I think we’re going to be late to class.” 

Donghyuck, Chenle, and the girl quickly bid their goodbyes and start running to class. 

Donghyuck starts to think about Lucas and how much he truly means to him, with years of friendship on their backs, and how ultimately he wants Lucas to be happy so he thinks, “I should get them together.”


	5. the blossom

When Donghyuck enters English, he has one goal in his mind. To officially get Mark and Lucas together. He doesn’t think about how cute Mark is or how much he would prefer to date him instead. He only thinks of Lucas. They became friends when they were in middle school, a lot of memories had been made, a lot of sleepovers combined with deep talks about life, and many conversations through text had occurred. Lucas meant a great deal to Donghyuck, and Donghyuck is self-less and tries to give the moon and the stars to his friends. 

All he needed to do was start talking to Mark more often and become friends with him to ensure that him and Lucas would start dating. 

Donghyuck spends the entire time in class trying to get Mark’s attention. He starts off by trying to tease him, “So you’re talking to Lucas? We’re really good friends, I can put in a good word in for you.”

Mark turns his attention from the board towards Donghyuck, he begins to rub the back of his neck, “Oh haha yeah.. we started talking at soccer tryouts and now we follow each other on social media.”

“Hmm that’s right, soccer season is coming up.”

“I didn’t know you and Lucas were friends though.”

“We’ve been friends since middle school. We sit at the tables outside the gym during lunch.”

“Oh no wonder, my friends and I chill out by the trees in front of the school.” 

“Who are your friends?”

“Jaemin, I’m sure you know him-”

“Yeah from the way you guys would scream at each other across the classroom.”

Mark laughs in a way Donghyuck has never heard someone laugh. It sounds like a tune in his ears and finds himself smiling. 

“Did you think we were annoying then?” Mark asks with a smile. 

“Yeah a little. I just realized that Jaemin is actually in my history class which is before this class.”

“Oh he loves that class!” 

“I can tell, he’s a teacher’s pet.. I can’t believe I didn’t recognize him before.” 

“Would you like to actually meet him? Hang out with us for lunch.” 

Donghyuck freezes. His goal to become actual friends with Mark seem to be working itself out on its own. He couldn’t just ditch Renjun, Jeno, and the rest of their friends for lunch, they’ve been doing this for 3 years straight now. 

“How about I join you guys for the second half of lunch? I’d feel so bad if I just ditched Renjun and Jeno like that.” 

“Hmmm come on.. stay with us the whole lunch.”

“I’ll go for the second half, meet me at the gate by the cafeteria.” 

Mark throws him a pointed look before settling with, “Alright fine, I think Jaemin and Jisung will really like you.” 

They bring back their focus to the board and their teacher, who didn’t seem to notice Donghyuck and Mark talking, and listen to Shakespeare’s poems until the end of class.


	6. the program

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> UCSD stands for University of California San Diego.

True to their words, Mark and Donghyuck had met up that day for lunch and more paths crossed. Jisung was a little wary towards Donghyuck but he also doesn’t talk as much as Jaemin or Mark do. Jaemin was more welcoming towards Donghyuck, his personality allowed them to talk to each other more comfortably. He actually knew Donghyuck from their shared classes and pouted when Donghyuck said he didn’t really pay attention to him until now.

Renjun and Jeno were a little confused when Donghyuck had approached them saying he wouldn’t be able to stay with them the entire lunch. He soon explained to them the Lucas and Mark situation to them and how he thought that Mark was a really cool dude besides that. He promised he wouldn’t go completely ditching them and would only go with Mark and his friends for the second half of lunch.

Donghyuck had also managed to talk to Lucas about wanting to get him together with Mark.

“Hey Lucas! I heard from Chenle that you were talking to Mark Lee.” says Donghyuck.

Lucas turns sheepish, “Yeah.. I met him at soccer tryouts and we hit it off pretty good. He’s cute but that’s pretty much it. I wouldn’t say we’re dating or anything.”

Donghyuck nods, “I have him for English, I can play cupid for you.”

“Wait, would you really do that?” Lucas asks incredulously.

“Dude yes, anything for you. I’m like already kind of friends with him anyways.”

* * *

The more Donghyuck spends time with Mark and his friends, the more he gets to know him. Mark lives in behind the town’s Autozone with his parents, has a sister and a niece, loves to play soccer and coaches the younger kids, really likes watermelon for some reason, and is really good at math.

He also finds out that Mark and him are in the same program at school. It’s a program that offers tutoring afterschool, opportunities to visit college campuses, help on college applications and resumes, and much more. Renjun was also in the same program and often went with Donghyuck to afterschool tutoring to put in hours. They had barely joined the program that year and Mark had already been a part of it since their freshmen year, he had stopped going to tutoring so that’s why Donghyuck had never seen him there before. 

Mark decides to visit Donghyuck at afterschool tutoring after Donghyuck lets him know he was going to be there with Renjun to get some homework done together.

“Is my baby here?” Donghyuck looks up immediately at the sound of Mark’s voice. He feels something deep in his stomach at Mark’s use of the petname. He looks to see Mark making eye contact for a few seconds before walking towards the math tutor, Mina.

“Mark! You haven’t come in so long, how have you been?” Mina is a college student who tutors the students on math.

Mark and Mina start to catch up while Renjun starts asking Donghyuck all types of questions he cannot seem to answer.

“You didn’t tell me Mark was in the program.” Renjun says in a whisper.

“I just found out, I had told him I was coming to tutoring with you today but I didn’t expect for him to show up.”

“Well.. he’s here.. does Lucas actually like him?”

Donghyuck pauses for a second to think. “Yeah I think so, and I think Mark likes him back. Although we don’t really talk about Lucas that much really.”

Renjun squints at Donghyuck, “I thought that’s why you became friends with him though.”

“Well yeah but we just kind of bonded over other things. From what I can tell they’re still talking through text mostly.”

They continue talking in low whispers in case Mark could overhear them while pretending to do their homework.

Mina announces break time for the students to go get their snacks at the library. Mark comes up to Donghyuck and Renjun as they’re walking.

“Hey! I don’t think we’ve officially met before, I’m Mark.” Mark throws up his hand to greet Renjun.

“Hi, I’ve heard loads about you from Hyuck. I’m Renjun.”

“And I’m Donghyuck! This is fun, feels like two of my worlds are colliding.” They all laugh but Donghyuck isn’t lying when he says this. He knew Renjun and Mark were going to meet at one point, especially with them being in the same grade but he thought he would’ve been the one to plan the meeting.

Mark starts talking to Renjun about school the entire trip to the library. Once they reach the tutoring classroom again, Renjun says, “I’ll let you guys to talk then, I’ll finish the bio homework for us Hyuck.”

“You don’t have to, I’ll be in right now.” Renjun looks at Donghyuck, to Mark, and back to Donghyuck and gives him a look that tells Donghyuck that he doesn’t really believe him and goes inside.

“I like him, why haven’t you presented me to your friends before?”

“Well if I recall, you like to hang out with Jaemin and Jisung in the front. Not to mention you’re like talking to Lucas, what good would it be to meet Renjun?”

Mark tilts his head slightly to the side, “Well you’re right but.. you talk about Renjun and Jeno so much, I would’ve wanted to meet them at some point.”

“How do I know you don’t want to steal them from me?” Donghyuck struggles to bite back his laughter.

“Oooh I see what you’re doing.” Mark pushes Donghyuck’s shoulder.

“I’m kidding.. but what are you even doing here in the first place? I didn’t expect you to show up when I told you I was coming here afterschool. And how do you even know Mina like that?”

“I got really close to Mina last year since we both love math and she was also part of the summer program at UCSD I went to last year. I called her baby as a joke, I figured it would catch your attention too.”

“I don’t know Mina that well.. I think she’s cool though. I don’t struggle with math so I don’t have anything to ask her… but talking about the summer program, I really really want to go. I talked to Renjun about it but he’s going to stay here and take a math class in the summer to advance further and I don’t know anyone else who’s going. You should go this summer again so you can keep me company.”

Mark grimaced, “I actually wasn’t planning on going this year. It’s an entire month away from home and I think I got my share of experience last year.”

Donghyuck moves to grab Mark’s arm, “C’mon! Please.. pretty please, I won’t have anyone and you’ll be my support system through it.”

Mark thinks for about a minute while Donghyuck continues to whine, “Fine. I’ll go again.”

Donghyuck beams at Mark’s answer, “You won’t regret it!”

But it seems that Donghyuck is the one who regrets it at the end.


	7. the phone call

The next few months for Donghyuck pass in a blur. Being friends with Mark, Jaemin, and Jisung was an experience he had never felt before. They were people that made Donghyuck laugh like no tomorrow, he hadn’t felt this type of rush in a friendship in quite some time. Renjun, Jeno, and Donghyuck had been friends since middle school, Donghyuck hadn’t made new friends since he was 13. He was going to turn 16 soon.

Donghyuck was soon incorporated into the little trio. They would invite him to movies, McDonald’s runs, and walk around town until sundown. Sometimes it would only be Donghyuck with Mark and Jaemin.

During this time, Lucas and Mark had actually started hanging out with each other outside of school. According to Mark, things were going very well. They would go to the park and talk (Donghyuck later finds out that they would makeout until one of them had to go home).

In the midst of all this, Donghyuck started to confuse the feelings he had for Mark and project them onto Jaemin instead. Donghyuck knew he wanted Lucas and Mark to be together, they were already a thing, and Donghyuck couldn’t risk in ruining his friendship with either one. So instead he started telling himself that he liked Jaemin instead. Him and Jaemin had been working on a history paper together and fooling around in the computer lab, it was passable in Donghyuck’s mind. Not to mention Jaemin was cute, even if Donghyuck thought Mark was the most handsome boy in the school.

One night, Mark and Donghyuck were texting each other.

hyuck:

sigh i think its one of those nights for me (8:42pm)

markie:

why what’s wrong (8:44pm)

hyuck:

i like someone but idk what to do (8:50pm)

markie:

????? (8:50pm)

you like someone and you didn’t think to tell me? (8:50pm)

Donghyuck drops his phone on his face and lets out a groan. He had been internalizing his feelings for Mark and projecting them onto Jaemin so well that he almost believed it himself. He didn’t want Mark or Jisung or even Jaemin to know about his feelings, the ones he really had for Mark but disguised them as feelings for Jaemin. He had been careless enough to let this slip up to Mark.

hyuck:

uh… (9:03pm)

i guess it slipped my mind? (9:04pm)

markie:

hmmm (9:04pm)

well who is it? (9:04pm)

Donghyuck breathes in, “Well here goes nothing…”

hyuck:

jaemin….. (9:06pm)

but don’t tell him!!! please (9:06pm)

markie:

DUDE (9:07pm)

omg why didn’t you say something before (9:07pm)

we could’ve gone on double dates or smth (9:08pm)

well triple dates seeing how good jisung and chenle are getting along (9:08pm)

hyuck:

i’m just shy (9:09pm)

pls don’t tell him (9:09pm)

we can all go out together but don’t tell him (9:09pm)

i’ll tell him when im ready i guess (9:10pm)

markie:

yeah for sure (9:14pm)

Donghyuck decided to just tell Mark that he was going to shower and go to sleep. He couldn’t stop thinking how stupid it was of him to tell Mark anything. “Maybe I do like Jaemin? And not Mark?” He thought this over and over under the shower-head and came out more confused than he did when he went in.

He laid in bed trying to figure out his feelings, he realized he couldn’t do this without his bestfriend.

Donghyuck flips over on his stomach and begins to call Jeno.

“Hello?” comes from the speaker.

“Jeno.. hi… I know you go to sleep by this time, but I need help.” Donghyuck tries not sound as pathetic as he feels.

“Hyuck, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”

“Well..”

Donghyuck explains his entire dilemma to Jeno, he receives little hums from time to time, ensuring Donghyuck that he has been listening the entire time.

He twists and turns in his bed as he tries to explain how he thinks he has feelings for Jaemin even if they might be feelings for Mark instead. Donghyuck repeatedly tells Jeno he doesn’t want to ruin things between him and Lucas and Mark respectfully.

“So you think by telling yourself and everyone that you like Jaemin will automatically erase your feelings for Mark?” Jeno asks in an incredulous tone.

“Yeah basically, and because I’m too scared to admit what I feel for Mark. It would make it too real.” Donghyuck whispers.

“Hyuck, you can’t control how you feel. It’s oka-“

“But Jeno it isn’t! Like I have been trying to get them together, how bad would I look falling for my friend’s boyfriend?”

Jeno sighs deeply, “I know I won’t be able to change your mind but try not to lead Jaemin on? It would be bad for the both of you.”

“Yeah I promise, thank you for listening Jen.. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”

“Of course Hyuck, anything for you. Goodnight. See you tomorrow.”

Donghyuck hangs up and ends up looking at his ceiling in despair.

“I am so fucked.” He thinks to himself before falling into the abyss of his dreams.

**Author's Note:**

> any kudos, comments, feedback, thoughts, anything, would be greatly appreciated :3


End file.
